"Barbara Bush blamed Donald Trump for her heart attack," Susan Page writes at USA Today, excerpting her upcoming book on the former first lady, The Matriarch. "It wasn't technically a heart attack, though she called it that. It was a crisis in her long battle with congestive heart failure and chronic pulmonary disease that hit her like a sledgehammer one day in June 2016," when Trump had secured the Republican nomination after repeatedly humiliating her son, Jeb Bush.
By February 2018, when Page asked Bush if she still considered herself a Republican, she answered, "I'd probably say no today." Page called that "a stunning acknowledgment" from "one of the most recognizable faces of the Republican Party through two presidencies," two months before her death.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Brazil has a scorpion problemUnder The Radar Venomous arachnids are infesting country's fast-growing cities
-
Why Rikers Island will no longer be under New York City's controlThe Explainer A 'remediation manager' has been appointed to run the infamous jail
-
California may pull health care from eligible undocumented migrantsIN THE SPOTLIGHT After pushing for universal health care for all Californians regardless of immigration status, Gov. Gavin Newsom's latest budget proposal backs away from a key campaign promise
-
Trump vows to lift Syria sanctionsspeed read The move would help the new government stabilize the country following years of civil war
-
Senate rejects Trump's Library of Congress takeoverspeed read Congress resisted the president's attempts to control 'the legislative branch's premier research body'
-
'Haiti's crisis is a complex problem that defies solution'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Hamas frees US hostage in deal sidelining Israelspeed read Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier, was the final living US citizen held by the militant group
-
White Afrikaners land in US as Trump-declared refugeesspeed read An exception was made to Trump's near-total ban on admitting refugees for the white South Africans
-
Why are white South Africans emigrating?The Explainer As the US welcomes Afrikaner refugees, the general exodus of South Africa's white population continues to grow
-
Democrats: How to rebuild a damaged brandFeature Trump's approval rating is sinking, but so is the Democratic brand
-
'Two dolls': Can Trump sell Americans on austerity?Feature Trump's tariffs may be threatening holiday shelves but they've handed Democrats a 'huge gift'
